Visa waiver not enough to woo tourists—Council

Malawi Tourism Council (MTC) says while the removal of visa requirements for some countries is a welcome development, Malawi has more work to do to boost its tourism sector.

MTC board chairperson Justin Dzinkambani, in an interview yesterday, said there were a numbers areas requiring attention such as improving the road infrastructure and services tourism players offer.

He was reacting to the addition of 30 countries to a list of 79 countries whose nationals are free to enter into Malawi without visas. The development takes to 50 the number of visa-exempted countries.

Dzinkambani noted that there will be more competition with other Southern African Development Community (Sadc) countries most of whom already opened up to most of the countries Malawi has exempted from visa.

He said: “It is a competition within Sadc and East Africa. We need to create specific interests for tourists to come to Malawi. But one of the setbacks is road transport infrastructure.

“I would look at possibly government to prioritise key areas in the tourism sector, for example, the M1 and the M5 and work hard to make a huge difference so that people can afford to travel as far as our national parks and lakes without problems.”  

However, Dzinkambani expressed optimism that the number of tourists visiting Malawi could double or triple following the removal of the restrictions for other countries.

The amended Chapter 15: 03 of the Immigration Act gazetted on February 7 2024 and signed by Minister of Homeland Security Ken Zikhale Ng’oma shows that countries that have been added on the list include United States of America, United Kingdom, Russia, China, France and Italy.

The new visa exempted countries have joined Israel, Jamaica, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Sadc countries such as Zambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

In a separate interview, Minister of Tourism Vera Kamtukule said that the removal of visas requirements for the countries will help to boost the country’s economy as well as the tourism industry.

She noted that visa requirements were among factors that were affecting tourism attraction.

“Therefore by removing visas requirements from our key source markets across the globe, he [President Lazarus Chakwera] is sending a signal that Malawi is open for business in these sectors,” said Kamtukule.

She said that about one million tourists visited the country last year and that his ministry is intensively engaging investors to boost the sector.

Meanwhile, Standard Bank Malawi plc chief executive Phillip Madinga says the government’s decision to remove visa restrictions will help increase inflows of foreign currency.

He described the government’s decision as timely as the country continues to battle foreign currency shortage.

“The development will help make Malawi an attractive tourism destination and boost foreign currency flows in the long-term,” said Madinga, whose bank has been advocating for the relaxation of the visa requirement.

In his February 2022 State of the Nation Address to the 50th Session of Parliament in Lilongwe, President Lazarus Chakwera indicated that to maximise tourism potential and increase its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) and forex generation, his government will waive visa fees.

The statement was in reaction to government move in 2015 when it imposed visa fees for all countries, with tourists coming to Malawi required to pay $50 (K51 800) per single entry while a multiple entry visa for six months cost $150 (K155 400). A multiple entry visa for 12 months cost $250 (K259 000).

Malawi has been struggling to tap from the global tourism boom since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, with figures from the World Travel and Tourism Council indicating that in 2021, the country generated $14.6 million (about K15.1 billion) from international visitor spending, a decline from the previous year’s $34.2 million (about K35 billion).

Before the pandemic in 2019, Malawi generated $64.7 million (about K67 billion) in international visitor spending, which is 47 percent less of what the country generated in 2020.

The ministry seeks to grow the number of tourists from the pre-Covid-19 figure of 900 000 to 1.5 million per year by 2030. Currently, the country gets about 600 000 tourists annually.